Princeton’s Economics and Computation 2025 by Matt Weinberg and Mark Braverman Course material: https://cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spring25/cos445/…

COS 445 - Spring 25

Source: https://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spring25/cos445/ In this course we will study a variety of topics on the cusp between economics and computation. Topics to be covered include:game theory, auctions, mechanism design and cryptocurrencies.

The aim of the course is two-fold: (1) to understand the game-theoretic issues behind systems involving computation such as online networks, and (2) to learn how algorithms and algorithmic thinking can help with designing better decision and allocation mechanisms in the offline world.

Staff

Instructors:Matt Weinberg(smweinberg@),Mark Braverman(mbraverm@cs.)

Graduate TAs:Eric Xue(ex3782@),Jingyi Liu(jingyi.liu@), Amrit Daswaney (amrit_d@),Haichen Dong(haichend@),Aadityan Ganesh(gaadityan@gmail.),Kaya Alpturer(kalpturer@),Nikhil Pimpalkhare(nikhil.pimpalkhare@),Yuanhao Wang(yuanhao@)

Undergraduate Course Staff:

Course Links

• What to expect from this course:FAQ
• Prerequisite skills/math:cheatsheeton background skills/math required for this course
• Discussion and announcements:Ed
• Assignment submissions:codePost
• Course policies

Schedule

LectureMonday/Wednesday09:30am-10:50amFriend 101Matt/MarkPrecept P08Wednesday3:30pm-4:20pmFriend 004AadityanPrecept P09Wednesday3:30pm-4:20pmFriend 008EricPrecept P01Thursday3:30pm-4:20pmGreen Hall 0-S-9KayaPrecept P02Thursday3:30pm-4:20pmFriend 112Amrit/KayaPrecept (Background Material)Thursday7:30pm-8:30pmCS 105StephenPrecept P11Friday11:00am-11:50amFriend 006HaichenPrecept P12Friday11:00am-11:50amFriend 111JingyiPrecept P05Friday1:30pm-2:20pmFriend 004NikhilPrecept P06Friday1:30pm-2:20pmFriend 111Yuanhao

Office Hours

Monday11:00am-12:00pmTea Room (CS 201)Matt/MarkMonday2:30pm-3:30pmTea Room (CS 201)Haichen & AmritMonday4:00pm-5:00pmTea Room (CS 201)Nikhil & YuanhaoMonday5:30pm-6:30pmTea Room (CS 201)Aadityan & KayaTuesday2:00pm-3:00pmTea Room (CS 201)EricTuesday4:30pm-5:30pmCS 302NikhilWednesday11:00am-12:00pmTea Room (CS 201)Matt/MarkWednesday2:00pm-3:00pmTea Room (CS 201)AmritThursday11:00am-12:00pmTea Room (CS 201) (Note: CS 105 on 03/27)JingyiThursday5:30pm-6:30pmCS 105 (Note: CS 402 on 03/27)KayaThursday6:30pm-7:30pmCS 105Stephen (NO PSET)Friday12:00pm-1:00pmCS 201 (Note: CS 003 on 03/28)HaichenFriday4:00pm-5:00pmCS 402 (Note: CS 105 on 03/28)YuanhaoFriday5:00pm-6:00pmCS 402Aadityan

Homework and Exams

Your homework must be submitted as a PDF file. You can use LaTeX or another math-document-editor to produce your homework PDF. If you have never used LaTeX,hereis a short guide. You might also want to useOverleaf, which is an online LaTeX editor and compiler. Feel free to visit office hours for help installing/setting up LaTeX.

Hereis a LaTeX template you may use for the homework, and a template for the collaboration statementhere(thanks to Jude Muriithi’24 for this template!)

Lectures

Some shorthand for the reading material:

• Rx= Tim Roughgarden’s lecture notes x
• KPx= Karlin and Peres chapter x
• EKx= Easley and Kleinberg chapter x
• NRTVx= Nisan, Roughgarden, Tardos and Vazirani chapter x (Click link --> resources --> Algorithmic Game Theory --> Algorithmic Game Theory)
• BCELPx= Brandt, Conitzer, Endriss, Lang, Procaccia chapter x (Click link --> resources --> resources --> online version. To find the password, visitVince Conitzer’s webpage)

DateTopicSupplemental Reading Material01/27Braess’ Paradox, Stable Matching IR1, R2, KP10.1, KP10.2, NRTV10.4,Wikipedia01/29Stable Matching IIR1, R2, KP10.3, NRTV10.402/03Matching IIIKP10.4, NRTV10.302/05Matching IVThis paper02/10Voting Theory IKP13, BCELP202/12Voting Theory IIR4, BCELP2, EK23.6, NRTV10.202/17Game Theory IKP4, R5, EK602/19Game Theory IIKP4, KP6, R502/24Linear ProgrammingSections 1 & 4here02/26Game Theory IIIKP203/03Information CascadesEK1603/05No Lecture03/10Spring Break03/12Spring Break03/17Auction Theory IR13, EK9.1-9.503/19Auction Theory IIR14, R15, KP 15.1-15.303/24Auction Theory IIIR14, R16, EK9.703/26Auction Theory IVKP14.4, KP14.603/31Cryptocurrencies IChapter 104/02Cryptocurrencies II“Selfish Mining”attack, notes on Ed04/07Scoring RulesR1704/09Cake CuttingBCELP13, KP1104/14Price of Anarchy IR7, NRTV18.1-18.3, KP8.1, KP8.404/16Price of Anarchy IIR7, NRTV18.1-18.3, KP8.1, KP8.404/21Behavioral Game Theory INotes on Ed, R1904/23Behavioral Game Theory IIR19